tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-96485102018-03-10T06:35:32.043-05:00True Blue Liberalhelping reclaim america from the dark side since 2004True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.comBlogger1178125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-9148623907091668552018-03-05T11:37:00.000-05:002018-03-05T11:37:37.355-05:00This Week's @TrueBlueLiberal Poll Is About Trump's Tariff Tantrum and Its Motivation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">POLL:<br>Many people are saying that <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a>&#39;s unexpected <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TariffTantrum?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TariffTantrum</a> is nothing more than a calculated distraction from Robert Mueller&#39;s <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TrumpRussia?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TrumpRussia</a> progress, which leads to this week&#39;s question:<br>Is Donald Trump more concerned about foreign steel or <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ChristopherSteele?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ChristopherSteele</a>?</p>&mdash; True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/970691735780196355?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2018</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <br /></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-52997526399524184982018-02-23T11:55:00.000-05:002018-02-23T11:55:43.884-05:00POLL: Can the Wisdom of Crowds tell us which member of the #TrumpCrimeFamily is going to see the inside of a jail cell first?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">WEEK-LONG POLL:<br>Will the first member of the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TrumpCrimeFamily?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TrumpCrimeFamily</a> to be indicted be Papa Don, Baby Don, Eric, or one or both of the halves of the glamorous criminal couple known as &#39;Javanka&#39;? <br>(Retweets will help to harness the infallible <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WisdomOfCrowds?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WisdomOfCrowds</a>)</p>&mdash; True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/967068744001433601?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2018</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <br /></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-50391893573589665242018-01-18T19:56:00.001-05:002018-01-18T19:56:29.602-05:00New Poll. Which psychiatric disorder is behind the President's compulsion to build the #GreatWallOfTrump?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">POLL: You too can be an amateur presidential psychiatrist!<br><br>The unchanging and unevolving compulsion of <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> to build an ineffective but VERY VERY VERY GREAT <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GreatWallOfTrump?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GreatWallOfTrump</a> could best be diagnosed as symptomatic of which of the following?</p>&mdash; True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/954143531706343425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 19, 2018</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <br /></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-18580710939642237072018-01-01T14:44:00.000-05:002018-01-01T14:44:48.409-05:00The Easiest Possible New Year's Resolution: WWDTD?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">WWDTD is, of course, a simple mnemonic for "What Would Donald Trump Do?"<br /><br />My resolution for 2018 is to remember to ask myself this question, and do the opposite. On the simplest level, asking myself WWDTD will keep me from golfing; praising myself inordinately; whining for an apology every time I feel my name, appearance, or intelligence has been slighted; hanging out in meetings with crowds of sycophants in suits and ties; looking for questionable ways to cheat on my taxes or otherwise gain money for myself and my family through schemes and shortcuts; creating a fraudulent 'university'; making a profit by raising the cost of admission to my annual New Year's Eve party at my own club; belittling people of a race, gender, or nationality that differs from mine; attacking people who express their patriotism differently or worship a different god, or no god; etc.; etc.<br /><br />But those are all the obvious <i>negatives </i>inspired by the WWDTD resolution strategy. There are <i>positive </i>steps I can take too, by proactively doing the opposite of what DT would do. Last night, for example, rather than hanging out with billionaires in monkey suits and being bored to death at Mar-a-Lago to celebrate New Year's Eve, I watched (at extremely high volume) all four hours of the Grateful Dead's New Year's Eve show at Winterland as 1978 became 1979 while reading the latest issue of <i>The New York Review of Books</i> and drinking ginger tea with turmeric. That's not something DT would do.<br /><br />I woke up this morning and went directly to a New Year's Day yoga class. That's not something DT would do.<br /><br />I'm working on turning my vegetarian diet into a vegan diet. That's not something DT would do.<br /><br />I want to read even more books, and read more widely, than I did in 2017. I stumbled on a couple of things this morning that are geared toward that goal, the <i>Los Angeles Times</i>' "<a href="http://www.latimes.com/books/la-et-jc-read-more-books-20171231-story.html">How to read more books in 2018</a>" and the New York Public Library's "<a href="https://www.nypl.org/blog/2017/12/29/read-harder-2018">Read Harder in 2018! NYPL's Suggestions for Book Riot’s Annual Challenge</a>." Personally, I have found that signing up with Goodreads and taking their Reading Challenge for the past few years has kept me reading more than 40 books a year. That's not something DT would do (I doubt if he has read 40 books in his life).<br /><br />WWDTD should provide guidance throughout the year. I'm going for a long walk now even though it's 12°F outside. That's not something DT would do. </div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-28600150554922005152017-12-31T18:58:00.000-05:002017-12-31T18:58:49.318-05:00Happy New Year (from Tennyson & Harrison)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><h1 class="page__title title" id="page-title" style="background-color: #fcf9f9; font-weight: 500; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: small;">In Memoriam [CVI. Ring out, wild bells]</span></h1><div class="view view-poems view-id-poems view-display-id-poem_author_dob_dod view-dom-id-3565d8fcb89e673bab29c37813fdcd05" style="background-color: #fcf9f9; max-width: 1260px;"><div class="view-content"><div class="views-row views-row-1 views-row-odd views-row-first views-row-last clearfix"><div class="views-field views-field-nothing"><h2 class="subheading" itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="font-weight: 500; line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 15px;"><span class="field-content" style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="node-title"><span itemprop="name">Alfred Lord Tennyson</span></span></span></h2><div style="font-size: 19px;"><span class="field-content" style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;"></span></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="background-color: #fcf9f9; line-height: 14px; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 100%; padding-right: 15px; width: auto;"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><pre style="line-height: 14px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 10px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The flying cloud, the frosty light:<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The year is dying in the night;<br />Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.<br /><br />Ring out the old, ring in the new,<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Ring, happy bells, across the snow:<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The year is going, let him go;<br />Ring out the false, ring in the true.<br /><br />Ring out the grief that saps the mind<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;For those that here we see no more;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Ring out the feud of rich and poor,<br />Ring in redress to all mankind.<br /><br />Ring out a slowly dying cause,<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And ancient forms of party strife;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Ring in the nobler modes of life,<br />With sweeter manners, purer laws.<br /><br />Ring out the want, the care, the sin,<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The faithless coldness of the times;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes<br />But ring the fuller minstrel in.<br /><br />Ring out false pride in place and blood,<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The civic slander and the spite;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Ring in the love of truth and right,<br />Ring in the common love of good.<br /><br />Ring out old shapes of foul disease;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Ring out the thousand wars of old,<br />Ring in the thousand years of peace.<br /><br />Ring in the valiant man and free,<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The larger heart, the kindlier hand;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Ring out the darkness of the land,<br />Ring in the Christ that is to be.</span></pre><pre style="line-height: 14px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 10px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></pre><pre style="line-height: 14px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 10px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">And George Harrison's 1974 variation on Tennyson's original:</span></pre><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SrXswIbWA7Y" width="640"></iframe> <pre style="line-height: 14px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 10px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></pre>Happy 2018 to all my fellow true blue liberalites. </div></div></div></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-25261206239106609572017-12-25T16:51:00.000-05:002017-12-25T16:51:19.687-05:00Merry Christmas.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">But I have a Christmas query:<br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> had been elected mayor of Bethlehem in the year 1 B.C. on an anti-immigrant platform, would he have kept Joseph and Mary from having their <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AnchorBaby?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AnchorBaby</a> in his town?<br><br>Xenophobia is the real <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WarOnChristmas?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WarOnChristmas</a>.</p>&mdash; True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/942826908747796480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2017</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><br>I have nothing to add to the "War On Christmas" question that I didn't already say when this blog was brand new in December 2004: "<a href="https://trueblueliberal.blogspot.com/2004/12/put-x-back-in-xmas.html">Put the X back in Xmas</a>." <br /></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-4345372241283359492017-11-27T21:26:00.000-05:002017-11-27T21:26:56.516-05:00Another TBL Poll : Who will be Trump's most effective deconstructionist?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Here's another poll that I see as a possible 50/50 toss-up.<br /><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">In the race to destroy the agency <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> has chosen them to dismantle, who will succeed first, Scott Pruitt at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EPA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EPA</a> or Nick Mulvaney at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CFPB?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CFPB</a>?</div>— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/934952802736115712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 27, 2017</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-49490382945146759102017-11-19T14:12:00.000-05:002017-11-19T14:17:12.194-05:00Two Gettysburg Addresses<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Today is the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Gettysburg Address, but we shouldn't let that overshadow <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-lawsuit-women-accusations-sexual-assault-groping-2005-video-melania-trump-a7375776.html" target="_blank">our current White House resident's Gettysburg Address on October 22, 2016</a>. Only a candidate at the time, Donald Trump promised a major address about his first hundred days as president at the site of Lincoln's immortal speech. The speech quickly devolved into a typical airing of grievances about the media, lies about the Clinton campaign, and gloating about his crowd sizes, but included one key specific threat that he never followed up on (and never will). With news of his history of sexual assaults and the Access Hollywood tape (below) dominating the news, candidate Trump made this promise:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: large;">"<a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1610/22/cnr.03.html" target="_blank">Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign. Total fabrication. The events never happened. Never. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.</a>"</span></blockquote>Even Donald Trump must remember what happened when Bill Clinton was forced to lie under oath about his sexual past; Donald Trump will never want to face any of his many accusers in a court room.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NcZcTnykYbw" width="640"></iframe></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-40721331757422559702017-11-14T12:14:00.000-05:002017-11-14T12:14:31.060-05:00A True Blue Liberal POTUS & SCOTUS Poll<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Here's a poll that will be up on the<a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal"> @TrueBlueLiberal</a> Twitter page this week about President Trump and two of his favorite judges:<br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">POLL:<br />Due to his very, very GREAT respect for the American justice system, the next judge whom <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> plans to elevate to a seat on the Supreme Court, if he gets the opportunity, is...</div>— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/930456062662234112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 14, 2017</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> </div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-39066565789541332402017-11-02T21:10:00.000-04:002017-11-02T21:10:01.888-04:00The "Best" Trump Poll<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Here's a week-long Twitter poll about Donald Trump's "best" words and "best" people that doesn't seem to have an obvious answer.<br /><br />Vote:<br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">Which is <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a>'s best and funniest joke?<br /> 'I have the best words'<br /> or<br /> 'I surround myself with the best people'</div>— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/926228994319704064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 2, 2017</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> </div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-52331440955111429462017-10-16T08:52:00.000-04:002017-10-16T08:52:05.443-04:00Happy 70th Birthday to Bob Weir.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Here he is with the band on August 27, 1972 in Veneta, Oregon.<br /><br /><iframe width="640" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zGfFUsAQaYE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-89290611301502708242017-10-14T22:06:00.000-04:002017-10-14T22:06:30.049-04:00Another TBL Poll: How Will #MAGA Kill You?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">If you die during the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MAGA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MAGA</a> years of <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a>, which of the following is most likely to be the cause?</div>— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/918903358592835589?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2017</a></blockquote><br />Or will it be a climate-change-induced weather catastrophe? Or black lung from all those new coal-fired power plants? Or getting hit by a Nazi-driven car because you had the temerity to engage in a peaceful protest? Or...? <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-10284526073503839552017-10-10T13:36:00.000-04:002017-10-10T13:53:43.059-04:00Happy 100th to Thelonious Monk!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Although we're the ones who get the gifts...<br /><br /><iframe width="640" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uZ0WslUsk1c" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><br />One of the (many) crimes of the Trump era is that the steady stream of idiocies coming through the media from the media manipulator in D.C. today almost made me miss the fact that Thelonious Monk was born on October 10, 1917. There's more of what Makes America Great in any single note from Monk's fingers than in all the words ever tweeted by you know who.<br><br><iframe width="640" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xC68NtEmAcc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br>Happy Birthday Mr. Monk.<br><br></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-47486548166829441752017-09-21T11:41:00.000-04:002017-09-21T11:41:23.148-04:00POLL: Sex, Lies, and Videotape<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">It's been too long since the last <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal" target="_blank">@TrueBlueLiberal</a> Twitter poll, so here's one that will run for the next week. Again, I hope this doesn't have an obvious answer.<br /><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">POLL: If he were forced to choose, which would <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump">@realDonaldTrump</a> prefer to keep hidden forever, the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PeePeeTapes?src=hash">#PeePeeTapes</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TrumpsMissingReturns?src=hash">#TrumpsMissingReturns</a>?</div>— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/910886088084017152">September 21, 2017</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br /><br /><br /></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-49851804866775428922017-09-07T11:50:00.000-04:002017-09-07T11:50:32.063-04:00The Dear Leader's Face!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">After Dear Leader's promise to #MAGA is completed, maybe we can all get great jobs creating coins and medals and murals and posters and paintings and flags featuring Dear Leader's face and name!<br><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4DjtKwKsO40" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-32014497213617396892017-08-31T10:50:00.000-04:002017-08-31T10:50:30.347-04:00POLL: The "Death Tax" or Deaths In Texas<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Yesterday afternoon, while victims of Hurricane Harvey were still dying and being rescued by helicopters and boats in Texas, President Trump spoke in Missouri about the more pressing issue (for him) of tax reform.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9L4Bde2V5M0/Wagf9MjEOrI/AAAAAAAADFc/Mltq5xlsMUMg1SQknryFe5yz1Km6mlpaQCHMYCw/s640/blogger-image--650842724.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9L4Bde2V5M0/Wagf9MjEOrI/AAAAAAAADFc/Mltq5xlsMUMg1SQknryFe5yz1Km6mlpaQCHMYCw/s640/blogger-image--650842724.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">This leads to a new Twitter poll.</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">POLL:<br>Which issue is closer to <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump">@realDonaldTrump</a>&#39;s heart, repealing Estate Tax to help his kids or empathizing with Hurricane Harvey victims?</p>&mdash; True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/903257980115746816">August 31, 2017</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><br><br></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-76333137265359166412017-08-24T11:00:00.000-04:002017-08-24T11:00:06.486-04:00Another Twitter Poll: Who Will Trump Pardon First?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Will Donald Trump's first pardon go to the racist sheriff from Arizona? Or one of the people connected to the Trump/Russia scandal? &nbsp;Or maybe he'll just try to save his namesake from RICO charges connected to "normal business practices"?<br /><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">Which of these four will be the first to receive a <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump">@realDonaldTrump</a> pardon?</div>— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/900728665142689792">August 24, 2017</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Twitter polls only allow four names, so if you have a name other than Arpaio, Manafort, Flynn, or Junior in mind, please put it in the comments.<br /><br /><br /></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-68081616763237637852017-08-22T23:29:00.001-04:002017-08-23T09:23:56.366-04:00America's Worst Painting<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">No, America's worst painting is not from "The Painter of Light<span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; font-family: &quot;roboto&quot; , &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">™</span>," but from Sean Hannity's favorite painter, Jon McNaughton.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ac6drk67Mss?ecver=1" width="640"></iframe> <br /><br />It's turning out to be right-wing art history week. A few days ago we heard&nbsp;<a href="http://trueblueliberal.blogspot.com/2017/08/donald-trump-art-lover.html" target="_blank">commentary on statues from the Tweeter-in-Chief</a>. Today Fox News' Dumbest Anchor<span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; font-family: &quot;roboto&quot; , &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">®</span>&nbsp;tweeted the video above with the comment "<a href="https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/900025637888503808" target="_blank">Amazing video and Art! Love this.</a>" As an investor and collector of McNaughton's work, he's only coincidentally trying to increase the value of his own collection, but as an art expert I'd also like to ask Sean if the black snake being crushed under Donald Trump's heel represents who we think it represents (Hint: <i>not </i>Satan). If there's any doubt that the black snake is Barack Obama, all one has to do is to look at the artist's earlier "<a href="http://jonmcnaughton.com/the-forgotten-man/">Forgotten Man</a>" masterpiece in which President Obama is standing in the same spot with the Constitution under his foot while getting dirty looks from all the earlier white presidents as the forgotten man hangs his head sitting on his bench. Now, in the glorious Trump years, the forgotten one is off his bench and planting a tree of hope, and Barack Obama is being trampled underfoot.<br /><br />Heavy-handed symbolism in representative art is always ugly, but heavy-handed racist symbolism gives this waste of canvas the prize for America's Worst Painting.</div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-9987028106161708802017-08-22T19:40:00.001-04:002017-08-22T19:40:04.742-04:00New True Blue Liberal Twitter Poll : The Two Donald Trumps<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Last night Donald Trump tortured the ears and patience of America's prime-time television audience as he struggled to fluently read a script about Afghanistan from a Teleprompter at Fort Myer in Arlington, Virginia. Tonight he'll be appearing and throwing red meat to his red-capped faithful at a campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona. This raises an obvious question without (for me) an obvious answer about the two Donalds.<br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">Which Trump annoys you more, the one who struggles to read from Teleprompters, or the rabble-rouser spewing his inchoate anger at rallies?</div>— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/900136691016642560">August 22, 2017</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br />Please vote.<br /><br /><br /></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-2978422528242036092017-08-17T12:00:00.000-04:002017-08-17T12:25:35.247-04:00Donald Trump, Art Lover<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/15/16153238/5-moments-trump-charlottesville-press-conference" target="_blank">Defender-of-Nazis </a>Donald J. Trump took to Twitter this morning to defend Confederate statues again, typing a string of tweets with an unexpected and completely out-of-character lesson in art history and the appreciation of beauty.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WDzy5ojHKKA/WZW48C91ihI/AAAAAAAADFM/AerT_q_Z-jcZHk5XEZxiOZlduKKRfkE5ACLcBGAs/s1600/Trump%2BArt%2BTweets%2B8-17-2017%2B11-39-31%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="536" height="250" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WDzy5ojHKKA/WZW48C91ihI/AAAAAAAADFM/AerT_q_Z-jcZHk5XEZxiOZlduKKRfkE5ACLcBGAs/s400/Trump%2BArt%2BTweets%2B8-17-2017%2B11-39-31%2BAM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">August 17, 2017</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KC5R6eSJfhE/WZW04HO52jI/AAAAAAAADFA/B6Q7xH1u6a4MVbhFArFoqY4Ms1X3pwuugCLcBGAs/s1600/Bonwit%2BSculptures%2B6-6-1980.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="519" data-original-width="258" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KC5R6eSJfhE/WZW04HO52jI/AAAAAAAADFA/B6Q7xH1u6a4MVbhFArFoqY4Ms1X3pwuugCLcBGAs/s320/Bonwit%2BSculptures%2B6-6-1980.png" width="159" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">June 6, 1980</td></tr></tbody></table>The first time that Donald Trump's name was linked to beautiful statuary in the news was back on June 6, 1980 when an article about Bonwit Teller on the first page of&nbsp;<i>The New York Times</i> ran with the headline, "<a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1980/06/06/120997165.html?pageNumber=1" target="_blank">Developer Scraps Bonwit Sculptures</a>." Trump's name itself didn't appear until the sixth paragraph about the landmark Fifth Avenue department store that was being razed to make room for a "$100 million 62-story bronze-colored glass tower of apartments, offices, and stores" that we now know by its shorthand name, Trump Tower. Trump had promised the Metropolitan Museum of Art that he would donate two 15-foot-tall Art Deco bas-relief panels by Rene Paul Chambellan if the cost of removing them was not "prohibitive." In the next paragraph, Trump's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_pseudonyms" target="_blank">fictional "vice president of the Trump Organization John Baron"</a>&nbsp;explained, in a voice that sounded very much like Donald Trump's, "the merit of these stones was not great enough to justify the effort to save them." Even though the Met was anxious to add these pieces to their collection and the appraiser consulted by the Times valued them at "several hundred thousand dollars," the unnamed three independent appraisers that "John Baron" cited had valued them at "worth less than $9,000 in resale value" and not worth his estimated $32,000 cost of removal. So the Trump Organization removed the sculptures with jackhammers instead. The Met was interested in acquiring the decorative metal grillwork above the main entrance as well; Trump sold it for its scrap value.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Would Donald Trump or his spokesman "John Baron" have taken more care if the sculptures depicted Robert E. Lee or Nathan Bedford Forrest in "beautiful" equestrian poses?</div><br /><br /></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-55977823835559390162017-07-12T19:56:00.000-04:002017-07-12T20:04:12.401-04:00Americans Should Never Forget this Moment with Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I just heard that President Trump gave an <a href="https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/politics/2017/july/s-pat-robertson-interviewing-president-trump-at-the-white-house-today" target="_blank">interview to Pat Robertson today that will be broadcast tomorrow </a>on Robertson's main vehicle for extracting money from the gullible, <i>The 700 Club</i> on his Christian Broadcasting Network. It's bad enough that CBN deals in so much fake news and mythological mumbo-jumbo that it makes Fox News look almost credible by comparison (<i>almost</i>). The president can easily be criticized for seeking yet another safe interviewer deep within the right-wing media bubble, but the president should also be <i>condemned </i>for lending respectability to this founding mullah of the American Taliban. The other religious extremist nut in this one-minute video from September 13, 2001 is the late Jerry Falwell, the founder of every Republican presidential candidate's obligatory campaign stop, Liberty University, where Trump felt safe enough to return and give a heckle-free commencement address earlier this year.<br /><br />Neither Falwell nor Robertson (or CBN or Liberty U) should ever appear in the news without the following video from two days after 9/11 immediately coming to every American's mind. This dangerous type of thought should never be mainstreamed (but it will have an even stronger proponent in the White House if Trump is kicked to the curb in favor of religious extremist VP Mike Pence).<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H-CAcdta_8I?ecver=1" width="560"></iframe></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-83685835307907926242017-07-06T08:53:00.000-04:002017-07-06T08:53:49.284-04:00Intentional and Unintentional Humor in the White House<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br><b>Happy Birthday to 1968's joke presidential candidate, Pat Paulsen (7/6/1927).</b><br /><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VTHge8q0zwY?ecver=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><br /><b>And to 2000's joke president, George W. Bush (7/6/1946).</b><br><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uO46ii3W07U?ecver=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br><br></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-58925096604123646742017-07-01T13:09:00.003-04:002017-07-01T21:46:53.491-04:00A Poll About @realDonaldTrump's Tweets Without an Obvious Answer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-T6h4kzxOOZs/WVfUqJCy-7I/AAAAAAAADEQ/UDfKd0Hys64EtW1w0kj3KN4IVyLeL0-EgCLcBGAs/s1600/Trump%2BTweets%2B7-1-2017%2B10-10-29%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="589" data-original-width="543" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-T6h4kzxOOZs/WVfUqJCy-7I/AAAAAAAADEQ/UDfKd0Hys64EtW1w0kj3KN4IVyLeL0-EgCLcBGAs/s320/Trump%2BTweets%2B7-1-2017%2B10-10-29%2BAM.png" width="295" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trump's tweets from July 1, 2016 at 10:10 AM EDT.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />This morning, for the third morning in a row, the official presidential statements in tweet form from the account of <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump" target="_blank">@realDonaldTrump </a>have been used to attack "Crazy Joe Scarborough" and "dumb as a rock Mika" Brzezinski; he also threw in shots at NBC, Comcast, and CNN. <a href="https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/881143316821233664" target="_blank">Over ten percent of his tweets</a> since becoming president have been targeting journalists, aimed at the "failing<i> New York Times</i>" and "Amazon <i>Washington Post</i>" as well as CBS and ABC. <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/879682547235651584" target="_blank">They are <i>all</i>, in his opinion, "Fake News," </a>and his supporters are buying it. Only Fox News, Breitbart, Infowars, and <i>The National Enquirer</i> escape the wrath of his little twitterfingers.<br /><br /><br />So here's the question. With more news breaking every day about the pre-election collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government to affect the November results, isn't it in his interest to do everything he can to discredit the messengers who are reporting <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23TrumpRussia&amp;src=typd" target="_blank">#TrumpRussia </a>breakthroughs every day?<br /><br /><br /><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">POLL<br />Are the non-stop media attacks from <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump">@realDonaldTrump</a> the rantings of an elderly TV addict or a conscious attempt to kill the messenger?</div>— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/881186058477719553">July 1, 2017</a></blockquote><br />~~~~~~~~~~~~<br /><i>Saturday Evening Update:</i><br />The Tweeter In Chief ended this day the same way he started it, while also adding the phrase "Modern Day Presidential" to the language.<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lOsToaS1aP4/WVhPzTSpDkI/AAAAAAAADEg/FjWqUcZqoiwUnCY5kNTazaB5L0i2mAkFQCLcBGAs/s1600/Trump%2BTweets%2B7-1-2017%2B8-30-13%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="519" data-original-width="541" height="306" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lOsToaS1aP4/WVhPzTSpDkI/AAAAAAAADEg/FjWqUcZqoiwUnCY5kNTazaB5L0i2mAkFQCLcBGAs/s320/Trump%2BTweets%2B7-1-2017%2B8-30-13%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trump's Tweets from 7/1/2017 captured at 8:30PM EDT.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-26372770902234842962017-06-30T10:11:00.000-04:002017-06-30T10:11:27.671-04:00Be Sure to Vote in the TBL Independence-Day-Weekend Poll<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Liberal Citizenship Test Question #1:<br>Which is your preferred motto for the United States of America?</p>&mdash; True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/879750228248801280">June 27, 2017</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><br /></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-45318154811230425462017-06-30T09:42:00.001-04:002017-06-30T10:01:34.543-04:00[Almost] Back to Business As Usual in the GOP/Fox Universe<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">After <a href="http://trueblueliberal.blogspot.com/2017/06/michelle-obama-already-delivered-best.html" target="_blank">yesterday's Twitter misstep</a> by the current resident of the White House, he was attacked from both sides of the aisle for reverting to his true bullying misogynistic personality (with a healthy dollop of his professionally-unexamined <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/08/07/trump-says-foxs-megyn-kelly-had-blood-coming-out-of-her-wherever/?utm_term=.a3e633ff325d" target="_blank">female blood obsession</a>). Among the Republicans who attacked the anti-Mika Brzezinski tweets was Ben Sasse of Nebraska who responded, "<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/29/politics/sasse-trump-twitter/index.html">Please just stop. This isn't normal and it's beneath the dignity of your office</a>."<br /><br />This morning Senator Sasse was on Donald Trump's favorite show <i>Fox and Friends</i> and called for a change in strategy to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0_GtLhJSVM0/WVZQgxkwBhI/AAAAAAAADDs/20HPJyf6RWsEqZHbD6eXCVn9mbmFBI7WACLcBGAs/s1600/Sasse%2Bon%2BF%2526F%2B6-30-2017%2B5-54%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="569" data-original-width="616" height="369" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0_GtLhJSVM0/WVZQgxkwBhI/AAAAAAAADDs/20HPJyf6RWsEqZHbD6eXCVn9mbmFBI7WACLcBGAs/s400/Sasse%2Bon%2BF%2526F%2B6-30-2017%2B5-54%2BAM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />A few minutes later, the president (whose own understanding of the mechanics of drafting and passing laws is less than rudimentary) tweeted this: <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-25AUq9oh-KI/WVZRQjZXAuI/AAAAAAAADD0/frTXIks2UNkHINHD9DS84T8xQiMBACnjgCLcBGAs/s1600/Trump%2BParroting%2BSasse%2B6-30-2017%2B5-37%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="364" data-original-width="622" height="234" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-25AUq9oh-KI/WVZRQjZXAuI/AAAAAAAADD0/frTXIks2UNkHINHD9DS84T8xQiMBACnjgCLcBGAs/s400/Trump%2BParroting%2BSasse%2B6-30-2017%2B5-37%2BAM.png" width="400" /></a></div>Looking at the time stamps on those tweets, it looks as though the official presidential statement in tweet form might have come before the Fox broadcast, but a CNN reporter retweeted by Sasse confirms the original sequence:<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fnMm1mvn5SU/WVZSz4nWM3I/AAAAAAAADEA/ceC2aFEsiVQ3w4QVCdqpQjB2-uqxJE3EACLcBGAs/s1600/Sasse%2BCNN%2Bretweet%2B6-30-17.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="208" data-original-width="586" height="141" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fnMm1mvn5SU/WVZSz4nWM3I/AAAAAAAADEA/ceC2aFEsiVQ3w4QVCdqpQjB2-uqxJE3EACLcBGAs/s400/Sasse%2BCNN%2Bretweet%2B6-30-17.png" width="400" /></a></div>The sequence, however, is actually immaterial. The real point is that the GOP White House, the GOP Senate, and the GOP television network are all getting back on the same page and are rededicating themselves to working hard to achieve job one, removing health insurance from the poor and middle class in order to give large tax cuts to the very rich. Hooray! The world is back to normal!<br /><br /><br /><br />~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br /><br /><b><i>HOLD THE PRESSES!</i></b> While I was writing this, it seems that a certain television addict in the White House switched the channel from Fox News to MSNBC, and got his tweeting back on track.<br /><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">Watched low rated <a href="https://twitter.com/Morning_Joe">@Morning_Joe</a> for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show</div>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/880771685460344832">June 30, 2017</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">Trump Tweet Translator:<br />"<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PresidentBannon?src=hash">#PresidentBannon</a> needs to give me more things to do. It's not good for me to have too much time to watch TV. Sad." <a href="https://t.co/np3XL8Wlt0">https://t.co/np3XL8Wlt0</a></div>— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/880774543341694976">June 30, 2017</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br /></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0